Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel & Residences Emirates Pearl — Hotel in Abu Dhabi

My review is dedicated to my meeting and interaction I had with the Conrad Etihad Towers food and beverage director Mr R Cabral. Having experienced one of the best New Eve events ever, I met with him to discuss how things had gone from ‘hero to zero’ in our opinion over 24hrs with the quality of food served by Na Haam part of our half board package. His nonchalant arrogance and complete disregard to grasp what I was saying left me feeling ignored, unappreciated and disregarded. It was if what I’d said had gone in one ear and out the other, and the way he initially introduced himself was indulting having accused me of not allowing him to firstly introduce himself 🤷‍♂️ he was accompanied by the guest standards director. All he kept saying was his he’d bite my comments and discuss training .. WHAT ABOUT OUR TOTALLY RUINED EVENING ‘ Mr Cabral ?? In my many years of travels to luxury hotels ( very many over 40yrs ), I have never left a meeting with any management of a hotel feeling so disregarded by such an arrogant dismissive and nonchalant individual as Mr R Cabral. HE will be the single reason will NOT be repeat guests at The Conrad Etihad Towers. I’ve waited a few days since our early morning meeting to hear from him, but I’ve heard nothing. It appears he believes he and his team should be immune from criticism, and the failings that my wife along with numerous other residents in conversation have mentioned around the pool and in the lounge on the 45th floor about the very poor standards of catering in some of the restaurants and the attitude of some of the staff. Staff attitude and training in the restaurants and bars along with a ‘hit and miss’ pot luck on the food, just isn’t good enough. Example : we visited the beautiful bar on the 62nd floor where we were shocked into submission when we casually asked for some additional crisp bread chips in addition to the4 presented with our first drink. We were told they would be chargeable 5DHS plus taxes per 4pcs Can you believe it, 4 corn chips set out on a ‘toast rack ‘like they must be covered in gold dust. Come on Conrad Etihad Towers, aren’t you making enough from your residents ?????

As I’m being very honest I also ought to share how my wife caught a bad cold two nights into our stay as a result of no heating in the room, only icy cold air conditioning ( even void air with the AC switched off) We couldn’t take it any more and 1.30am on the second night we had to call an engineer who fixed the fault by switching something over on the roof on the bathroom saying he knew the exact issue, and then the hotel had to provide a portable heater. Finally the lifts .. they were an absolute joke with an average of 45 mins a day ( mimimim ) being spent waiting for them. I know the management will justify this by saying how spectacular the views are once yo get up high … but really ?🙃 Example: on Jan 2nd we wanted to get to the beach, and we finished up stopping more than 26 times from the 59th floor heading down, problem was the lift was totally ‘jam packed’ full after the first 4 stops so we took so long and wasted so so much time stopping over and over. Just note if you’re considering paying extra to be on Level 45 ( as we did ) there’s no dedicated lift ( from the 6 lifts available in the lobby ) to this floor and above. So expect some crazy waiting times as we’ve unfortunately had to put up with every day.

Finally … on my Trip Advisor report I put up on 1st Jan following the NYE event in the hotel a ‘ 7’star rating. Now I realise that was a hasty ‘knee jerk’ reaction. In reality having had a few days here it’s more 3 star and even 2 star when I add on one individual’s contribution Mr Cabral and how he made me feel . I sincerely hope the Hotel General Manager finds the time to meet with me when he reads my review, and that I don’t simply get an AI response. We can tell you know ! I have...

The good points: The staff are all exceptional - from the reception desk to concierge or pool attendant they could not do enough for us. The rooms are pretty special, we had booked a premium room which was great, but due to it having a connecting door (which is a massive no-no for me) we paid to upgrade to a suite and it was up there with one of the best rooms we have stayed in. Only negative was the balcony was quite thin and had no furniture, so essentially a waste of time. The gym and changing rooms were also very nice. The location is great for that end of the city and at that time of year you can walk to other hotels and bars, the mall and the palace, or just to access the corniche. The public areas of the hotel are immaculate, modern and beautiful.||The not so good points: possibly one of the worst club lounges we have experienced - aside from the staff who were all very nice but there should have been more of them in the evening. There is no club check in area, its quite dark inside and children are allowed in in happy hour. The range of drinks in happy hour was pretty poor and with low quality spirits, the food was ok but a really random selection and nothing went together, no basic salad or vegetables and all in a really small area so everyone is on top of each other trying to get to it. The afternoon tea was abysmal and consisted of two types of sandwich and a cake. It seems like the whole area was once a restaurant that's been turned into the club lounge, it still has an open plan kitchen area where they cook for the pub located next door - walking it through the club lounge to serve it. Breakfast was good, but trying to get a cup of coffee or tea was a challenge, we waited 35 mins one morning. The pool area is small, it was overcrowded with day guests, the beach is a bit of a joke and completely covered in umbrellas and sunbeds in close quarters. A particularly unpleasant experience at the moment as there is building works happening at the hotels either side and the noise was loud and constant. Christmas morning by the pool at 10am was an effort in trying to find a sunbed that hadn't been reserved by a towel, accompanied by the sounds of drilling, scaffolding being thrown on the floor and an incredibly loud soundcheck of dance music from another hotel in preparation for their festivities, it wasn't what i had hoped for when booking this very expensive festive holiday stay. ||The hotel is beautiful, the rooms incredible, the view (palace side) fantastic and the staff are a real credit to the company. We had a nice stay for the Christmas period, mainly due to the room, but for what we paid (which was a lot) I had definitely hoped for much more and have experienced...

It has been a very unfortunate experience at this hotel due to the animal cruelty that we witnessed on the beach. A woman allowed her son repeatedly try to drown a small rabbit. The hotel has a no pet policy but they allowed this woman to take two rabbits around the pool and beach in 38 degree heat for over an hour. When my young daughter approached the lady to ask could she stop her son dunking the rabbit and trying to Bury it in the sand over 20 times we were told to mind our own business and she began shouting. The woman threatened assault on both me and my daughter, screaming we told her son off (so many witnesses observed this was not the case). The hotel manager made us feel very unwanted, asking if we were citizens and have we been to abu dhabi before. We found this worrying as we are reporting animal welfare issues and we now feel so unwelcome. Once other hotel guests collaborated our observations, that a rabbit was being tortured at the beach, the hotel manager advised this was a cultural issue and we didn't understand this. At one point my daughter was the person advised to go inside and stay away from the woman, as if she did something wrong. I have never in my life been to a 5 star hotel that allowed animal abuse, that staff also witnessed to be overlooked. One lifeguard said, you cant stop it, it happens all the time. This evening we complained again but the day manager had reported the incident as an accident at the pool. The child of 5 years had taken the rabbit and used it like a plastic toy dunking and dunking it until it went limp for over 10 minutes. What amazed me is why are other guests not feeling they can log a complaint.

This has left me and my family traumatised, we feel we will need to go out of the hotel due to the way this was managed and resolved. The lady left with her rabbits and child, probably with very little chance of survival for these animals.

We are left feeling like we can't wait to go home, that we are not welcome here as we are not abu dhabi residents and that we are second rate citizens. We are not going to the beach as our stomachs are still churning from the tortured animal and I feel no living creature should have this accepted by a five star hotel. Management looked to blame us, accusing us of recording the incident, threatening the police.

Shame as rooms are nice and the reception gentleman is lovely. We thought about bringing the rest of our family here. Absolutely no way!

Awful...